“Hiding,” Buck said shortly. He glanced outside again. “On second thought, I’ll risk it now. Meet you at the dining hall in ten minutes.”
Before he could make his escape, Honey planted a foot on the trailing edge of the blanket. Buck got partway out the window before realizing that he was leaving his scanty cover behind. He grabbed at the slipping corner just in time to prevent a spectacular wardrobe malfunction.
Honey kept her full weight on the blanket. “You can leave me with answers, or this blanket, Buck. Your call.”
For a second, she thought he’d genuinely decide to run buck naked across the camp. Then he sighed, shoulders dropping in defeat.
“I guess you should know,” he said, coming down from the windowsill. “Since this is probably going to keep happening.”
“What?”
“Any time I close my eyes, there’s a fifty-fifty chance I’m going to open them again to find myself up on that motherloving roof.” He pulled on the blanket, and this time she let him take it. “When I’m asleep, I can’t control the monster.”
“What monster?”
He shot her a look as he wrapped the blanket more securely around his waist. “You know damn well what monster. You’ve seen the cursed thing, after all.”
It genuinely took her a moment to connect the dots. The winged wolf had been breath-taking, all brightness and power. Even in her shock, it hadn’t even crossed her mind to be afraid of something so purely magical. How could anyone call it a monster? Let alone Buck himself?
“You mean… you shapeshift in your sleep?” she asked, still not entirely sure she was understanding him correctly. “And you’re not aware of what you’re doing while you’re transformed?”
“Whatit’sdoing,” Buck corrected. He rubbed absently at a prominent scar on his bicep. “I can keep the thing stuffed in its cage during the day. Most of the time, anyway. But I can’t stay awake twenty-four seven. Not that I haven’t tried.”
Honey remembered the odd, heavy steel link bracelet she’d noticed around his wrist at their first meeting. Not a bracelet after all. Achain. He’d had a chain padlocked around his arm. And his feet had been bare…
“This happened the morning that we met, didn’t it?” she said. “That’s why you had that chain around your wrist. You were trying to keep yourself locked up, but it didn’t work.”
“Damn thing can bite through anything short of a solid wall, it seems.” Buck scowled. “And even if I bricked myself in a basement, it would probably chew its way out just to spite me. Pretty sure it leaves my clothes behind deliberately, too. Since it’s technically a type of hellhound, itshouldbe able to bring my pants along when it takes over. Furry asshole.”
That would explain the ‘naked’ part of ‘naked under her bed,’ she supposed. Though not the more important part, which was why he’d beenunder her freaking bed.
“Hang on, how did you even get in my room?” she said. “I’ve seen your other form. I don’t think you’d fit through the window, let alone under my bed.”
“I was back in control by then.” Buck grimaced. “I woke up naked on your roof. I was trying to sneak back to my cabin when the morning bell went off. Let’s just say that several significant lapses in judgment were made after that.”
“No kidding.” Something else occurred to her. “Wait. You said this has happened before? Waking up on the roof, I mean.”
“Yeah. Few times, now. Damn monster’s obsessed with this place.”
“Why?”
“No idea.” Buck slapped irritably at his scar, as though an insect had just stung him. “Zeph has a theory that the cursed beast is lonely. Wants to be part of a pack, or some such nonsense. Load of bull. Son of a bitch just likes to screw me over.”
Honey blinked, taken aback by the undisguised venom in his tone. From everything she’d learned about shifters so far, she’d had the impression that their animal was central to their identity.I’m a wombat,Flora had said; notI turn into a wombat.Archie, Estelle, Finley—they’d all spoken of their animals in the same way, as part of themselves.
But Buck was talking about his as though it was some malevolent creature, entirely separate to himself. As if it reallywasa monster.
“How long has this been going on?” she asked him.
He shrugged, still rubbing at his arm. “Couple of weeks, maybe. Ever since the fire crew kids started hanging out here.”
“Could you control your shifting before that?”
He let out a quick, harsh laugh, like she’d inadvertently made an awful joke. “Didn’t have to.”
“Why not?”
“Because up until recently, I was the same as you.” Buck’s mouth curled in an ironic twist. “One hundred percent human.”
